October 16, 2014 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals Reversed Lower Court on Plain Error Grounds

Following oral argument described below, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia October 16, 2014 reversed on plain error grounds argued by Mr. Kent a life sentence under count two of a multi-count indictment for Mr. Kent's client Maurice Phillips.  Phillips and ten co-defendants were indicted, convicted, and sentenced for their allegedinvolvement in what the Government called the "PCO," a large-scale interstate cocaine trafficking organization. Phillips allegedly led the PCO from 1998 until he was apprehended in 2007. According to the Government, the PCO had outlets in several jurisdictions, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. Mr. Kent argued that the count in question, a continuing criminal enterprise conviction, was infirm due to both Rutledge and Richardson errors.  Mr. Phillips is still subject to a life sentences on other counts. Chief Judge McKee wrote the opinion of the Court:

"Appellant Maurice Phillips appeals the convictions and sentences imposed after a jury convicted him of a number of charges stemming from his role as the leader of the Phillips Cocaine Organization (“PCO”). Among his numerous claims on appeal, Phillips contends that the District Court erred in convicting and sentencing him for both drug conspiracy (Count I) and operating a Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) (Count II) because, as the Supreme Court held in Rutledge v. United States, 517 U.S. 292 (1996),  drug conspiracy is a lesser included offense of CCE. Moreover, he claims that his CCE conviction should be vacated because the Court’s charge on the CCE offense failed to instruct the jury that it must unanimously decide which violations constituted the “continuing series of violations” underlying the charge, as required by the Supreme Court’s decision in Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813 (1999). For the reasons that follow, we will vacate Phillips’s conviction and sentence for Count II, the CCE charge. However, we will affirm the District Court with respect to all other issues raised on appeal."